Last week I did some more work on the stove.
The main thing was making the cut-off tank top into a real lid.
To start with, I dug through my firewood pile to find a stick of oak that was about the right size for a handle. I purchased two carriage bolts that would be long enough to go through the handle, past the thickness of my hand, leave room for the port thing in the top of the lid, and through the metal with enough length for a nut on the other side.
With the bolts through the wood, I could mark where the holes in the metal lid would go. Then I drilled the two holes.
For spacers, I needed some sort of hollow tube to go around the bolts, between the lid and the handle, and it needed to be heat-proof. I found some scrap soft copper tube, which already had the proper patina for the project, and cut two pieces to length.
The copper tubes go over the bolts, with a washer at the top. Then the bolts go through the lid, with a nut and lock washer on the bottom.
I test-fit the whole thing, then dissassembled, cut the wood handle to a shorter length, rounded off the edges with a router and sandpaper, and then did final assembly. Later, I also rubbed down the oak with mineral oil for basic sealing and color.
For the side-table material, I really liked the blue-green slate best. The only trouble was that two edges were natural, and two were square-cut. Since I liked the natural shape, it made sense to just make the cut sides more natural.
I tried a hammer, chisels, a different hammer, etc. to see what tool worked best to shape the edge. In the end, smacking the heck out of it with a ball-pien hammer, then using the SIDE of a chisel to rub back and forth, seemed to work best. I ended up with a natural edge with no rough spots. A little sandpaper worked to finish it off.
(Wearing safety glasses and work gloves is a no-brainer here. In the one photo, I only had my gloves off to work my camera.)
Here's the stove with the new "Natural-Edge" stone just set on there.
I still need to make some angle-iron welded to the pipe flange for a permanent mount.
I also welded tabs on the lid that line up with the tabs inside the grill. That way, there is about an inch gap all the way around to let the smoke out. If I rotate the lid, the tabs don't line up, and the lid closes all the way.
I also stopped over at the tool store with a coupon and got one of those remote-read-laser-spotting digital thermometers at a good discount.
It was fun to point the laser at different spots and see the differences in temperature.
I still need to mount to slate table-top. I also plan to make a utensil/beer holder on the right side, and need to get a real grate. Although the smaller size Webber replacement grill would fit in there, it would be just a little small. I would rather make something custom myself.
In the department of "Tales of Safety", I realized exactly how dangerous angle-grinders can be. While I always wear safety glasses and work gloves, and keep my face out of the path of rotation of the disc, accidents do happen. I was using a BIG HEAVY grindstone - one of those really thick ones - weighs a couple of pounds. Somehow, it shattered. A big hunk hit my leg at 4500 RPM! Yeow! I now have a softball-size bruise in the middle of my right thigh, and it's every color of the rainbow!
Be safe when working on projects people! Protective gear is important!